“Nor on me,” squeaked little Miss Cricket.
“Hold on, I’m getting in,” barked the Yellow Dog Tramp.
“I ran all the way,” panted Busy Beaver.
“So did I,” said Chippy Chipmunk.
“Any more?” asked the Old Dog Driver.
“Yes, yes!” shouted dear Uncle Lucky. “I’m going,” and the dear old
gentleman rabbit hopped out of his Luckymobile and into the Stage
Coach.
“I guess everybody’s here,” said Mr. Rabbit.
“Who’s that coming across the meadows?” asked the lady bunny, looking
out of the stage coach window.
“Why, bless my pink tie and horseshoe pin,” exclaimed Uncle Lucky,
“it’s Goosey Lucy.”
As soon as she was aboard, the Old Dog Driver cracked his whip and
away they went to Turnip City to see Uncle Lucky’s wonderful circus.
Over the bumps and over the stones,
While the lollypops rattled the ice-cream cones,
Went the Billy Goat Stage Coach with a quiver
Till at last it reached the Sippi River.
“Whoa!” shouted the Old Dog Driver, pulling in his team of billy
goats. “Whoa!” and this time he said it so loud that an old duck
waddled out of a little house close to the bridge gate.
“My gracious!” she quacked, “you have a load, all right. I never saw
so many animals and birds in a stage coach before, and I’m an old
duck. Oh, yes, I’m as old as a good many great-great-grandmothers.”
“What is the toll?” asked the Old Dog Driver, lighting his pipe and
puffing out a cloud of smoke.
“Five carrot cents for the stage coach, ten carrot cents for the
Billy Goat Team, two carrot cents for yourself, and three carrot
cents for each passenger,” answered the old lady duck.
“Dear me,” whined the Old Dog Driver, “it will take some time to
count it all up. How will a lettuce leaf dollar bill suit you?”
“Won’t do,” answered the old lady duck. My, wasn’t she particular,
though?
“Well then, let’s start counting,” sighed the Old Dog Driver. “You
count those on top and I’ll count those inside, and who gets done
first, wins.”
“Wins what?” asked the old Lady Duck.
“A Little Jack Rabbit Book,” laughed the Old Dog Driver. “I have one
in my pocket for your little grand duckling. Hurry up and win.”
Then, goodness me! How that lady duck did count! In less than five
hundred short seconds she had finished and the Old Dog Driver had
only just begun.
Well, sir, when it came to pay, the toll was more than a lettuce leaf
dollar bill. Dear me, yes. But what it was I won’t bother to tell
you, for I haven’t had time to count the passengers. Have you?
As soon as the toll gate swung open, over the bridge, pranced the
billy goats, rapperty rap, rapperty rap, and before very long they
were galloping up a steep hill, for those billy goats didn’t mind
that. No, siree! They were used to climbing mountains and, besides,
everybody was singing:
“I want to go to the Circus,
To see the elephants dance.
I want to run round the sawdust ring
In my very best Sunday pants.
I’m crazy to sip the pink lemonade,
Oh, get me in time for the Big Parade!
Oh, hurry up faster, for I am afraid
I’ll surely go crazy if we are delayed!”
My goodness! how that Billy Goat Coach rolled over the pebbles and
over the stones. And how those billy goats pranced and threw out
their heels, shook their heads and their long horns.
“Gid-ap!” barked the Old Dog Driver.
“Let ’er go!” shouted dear Uncle Lucky.
Away, faster than ever, and faster still, went the billy goats up the
big steep hill, and down the other side to Rabbitville.
Along Lettuce Avenue they clattered, past the Three-in-One Cent
Store, past the Welsh Rarebit Club and the Post Office, from the
doorway of which the Old Maid Grasshopper waved a white pocket
handkerchief; past the Old Mill where the Dusty Moth Miller ground
the corn for the farmer bunnies; past the house of Dr. Quack, the
famous duck doctor, and the little green house in which Mrs. Mouse
lived.
Dear me! I could go on and on just like the old coach, and say so
much that I’d have no room to put in what happened when it finally
drew up in Turnip City.
“Whoa there, my good little billy goats!” shouted the Old Dog Driver,
as the big Policeman Dog held up his paw to stop the taxis and wagons
until everybody was safe on the sidewalk. Then the Old Dog Driver
gave the billy goats a nice drink of water at the fountain and drove
around to the wagon entrance on Cabbage Street.
Well, it didn’t take the Shady Forest and Sunny Meadow people long to
walk into the tent. Uncle Lucky headed the procession, Little Jack
Rabbit next, then Grandma Bunny and Lady Love, Mr. Rabbit and the Big
Brown Bear, until, way down at the end, waddled Ducky Waddles.
“Quack, quack! Please hurry!” he begged, beginning to fear the
circus would be over by the time he entered the tent.
But he needn’t have worried, for the Old Dog Driver had arrived early.
“Come on, Timmie Meadowmouse,” cried the little bunny, “I must see
the animals.”
Pretty soon they came to a little tent. They didn’t know it belonged
to the Circus Queen, the lovely lady dressed in gauze and gold
spangles, who rode on the big white horse.
There she sat on a circus trunk, holding in her arms a little baby.
“Hush-a-by, hush-a-by,
Little Boy Blue,
Mother is singing
A dream song to you.
Some day you’ll grow
To be a big Clown,
And you’ll make ’em laugh
In city and town.
But I’ll love you best,
If you’ll whisper ‘Goo, goo.’
To help me remember
How little were you.”
“Gracious me!” she exclaimed in a whisper on seeing Little Jack
Rabbit and Timmie Meadowmouse, “am I dreaming? Maybe I’m in By-low
Land!”
“No, m’am,” answered the little bunny, taking off his khaki cap, “I
hear them calling you!”
[Illustration: “Some day you’ll grow to be a big clown.”]
Sure enough, a man’s voice was shouting, “Liz, oh, Liz! Liz, Liz!”
“I’m coming,” answered the Circus Queen, tenderly placing the
sleeping baby in its cradle.
Just outside stood a big white horse, and before the little bunny
could say “Oh! Ah!” she was riding into the big tent. “Hurrah!
Hurray! Here’s Lizzie Gray, she’s riding better every day!” clapped
and shouted all the people.
But nobody knew she was a loving mother nor that just outside in the
little tent slept Boy Blue.
All of a sudden the band struck up and a funny clown began to sing:
“Uncle Lucky’s Big Star Show,
That’s our circus name,
From Lettuce Square to Everywhere
We play the circus game.
Over the tanbark in the ring
I turn a somersault or a spring,
And then I give a merry laugh
That tickles to death the big giraffe.”
After that the big parade went around the ring, pretty girls dressed up
as butterflies, elephants gayly decorated with diamond chains, camels
carrying gorgeously gowned ladies, big floats with funny little dwarfs.
Everything you can think of, and lots of things you’d never dream of.
My, wasn’t it fun. Well, I guess yes three times, and
maybe four. I’m sure I can’t count, I’m so excited just
writing about the circus.
For I’m still a boy I’ll let you know,
And I’m never too tired or fagged to go
To see the circus. Not me, you bet!
If it hadn’t closed down I’d be there yet.
“Hurrah!” shouted Little Jack Rabbit. “There’s the circus Queen!”
“Hurray!” shouted the Big Brown Bear, and the next minute he shouted
it three times for the trained bear had begun to roller skate.
[Illustration: “The trained bear had begun to roller skate.”]
Goodness me! How the Shady Forest Folk and the Sunny Meadow People
enjoyed it all. Even Grandmother Magpie smiled and clapped her wings.
As for Granddaddy Bullfrog, he hip-hurrayed until he grew so husky
that he didn’t make a sound when he opened his mouth.
By and by, after a while, the show ended and Little Jack Rabbit’s
Circus Party marched out and into the Billy Goat Stage Coach.
“Good-by, come again next year!” cried the big Policeman Dog on the
street corner.
“Much obliged,” answered Uncle Lucky, waving his old wedding
stovepipe hat. “We’ll be back inside a year, see you keep the
crossing clear; let no taxi run us down when we come to Turnip Town.”
Then away rattled the stage coach, the two little billy goats
prancing up Lettuce Avenue as gayly as you please.
“Toot, toot!” went the ferryboat whistle, as it neared the river.
“Hurry up!” it seemed to say. So the Old Dog Driver cracked his whip
over the heads of the billy goats and in a few minutes all were on
board.
“Tinkle, tinkle!” sounded the bell, the big paddle wheels commenced
to turn, and in less time than I can take to tell it the ferryboat
was half across the River Sippi, and almost before dear Uncle Lucky
could get his shoes shined it bumped into the ferry slip.
“Well, well, well! Here we are!” exclaimed the dear old gentleman
rabbit, when the Billy Goat Stage Coach at last drew up before the
Old Bramble Patch;
“There’s no place like home,
Be it ever so humble,”
Said the little gold bee
With a buzz and a bumble.
In a few minutes the coach was empty and as soon as the little people
of the forest and meadow had thanked Little Jack Rabbit for a good
time, they either hopped or ran or flew to their homes. Pretty soon
there was nobody left, so the happy rabbit family hopped into the
little white house in the Old Bramble Patch. In a few minutes the
nice old lady bunny and Lady Love had prepared a nice hot supper.
“I declare,” exclaimed Uncle Lucky, setting down his cup of hot
turnip tea, “that certainly was the best circus I’ve been to in many
a year.”
“I’ll tell the world,” agreed Little Jack Rabbit.
“What do you know about circuses, you little bunny?” laughed the
funny old gentleman rabbit. “This is the first time you’ve ever been
to one.”
“That doesn’t matter,” answered the little bunny. “I’ve dreamed about
them many a time, and some dreams are very real.”
“Make your dreams come true—
Dreams are part of you,”
softly twittered the little canary.
“That reminds me of a story,” mused dear Uncle Lucky, pushing up his
spectacles and settling himself comfortably in the old arm chair:
“Once upon a time a little bird in a blue coat sat on an Old Snake
Fence. All around him the earth was dingy, the trees bare and
leafless. The chilly wind kept little patches of snow still lingering
in the shady hollow places. But all this didn’t keep the brave little
bird from whistling merrily, for in his heart he held a dream of
summer, red roses and green woods, grassy meadows and little hills
covered with wild strawberries.
“So he sang his song of promise to his mate while she made a
comfortable nest in a dry hole in a fence post. By and by, when
it was finished, she filled it with pretty eggs, on which she sat
to warm them with her feathers. And while she sat there she, too,
dreamed—dreamed of four little bluebirds.
“As the sun grew warmer and the meadow greener and the forest more
leafy, one by one the little bluebirds broke open the shells.
“‘Tirel loo, tirel loo,
Make your happy dreams come true.
See, the spring has come again
With the sunshine after rain,
And beneath the mother’s breast
Four blue birdies in the nest,’
sang the Bluebird from the top rail of the Old Snake
Fence. There,” said dear Uncle Lucky, “that’s all!”
BUNNY TALE 10
THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT
For days nobody talked of anything but the Circus party. From bush and
tree in the Shady Forest, from hollow and hill in the Sunny Meadow, the
Little Feathered and Fourfooted Folk were telling over and over again
the wonderful things they had seen at the circus.
“Gracious me,” chuckled the Big Brown Bear, “that cousin of mine
certainly can roller skate.”
“Well, he was no better than my relative who flew through the ring of
flames,” cried Professor Jim Crow.
“Nor any braver than my nephew who fired the pistol. That pup was some
dog!” barked the Yellow Dog Tramp, wagging his tail.
“Well, just the same, I’m glad to be back on my old log,” said
Granddaddy Bullfrog. “There’s always something going on in the Old Duck
Pond. If it isn’t a perch chasing a minnow, it’s Ducky Waddles. Mrs.
Darning Needle is never idle and the little tadpoles make me laugh.”
After a week, however, every one settled down again. Little Jack Rabbit
had almost forgotten that he’d ever been to a circus when one day just
about noontime, who should come along but the Big Circus Elephant. Dear
me, how tired he looked! His coat was covered with dust and there was
a dent in the little hat on the top of his head. I suppose in coming
through the Shady Forest the big animal had brushed against a branch.
“Whew, I’m tired!” he cried, sitting down under the Big Chestnut Tree
near which Chippy Chipmunk had his home. “It’s a long way from Turnip
City.”
[Illustration: The little bunny handing a rose to Lady Love.]
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Little Jack Rabbit, hopping up beside him. “How
long did it take you?”
“Two days and forty-four miles,” answered the tired Elephant. “But
I’m here at last. So let’s forget troubles and look ahead, as my good
mother used to say when I was a kid in Jungle Land.”
“Are you hungry?” asked Little Jack Rabbit. “I have two lollypops and a
custard pie in my knapsack.”
“Let’s look at ’em,” answered the Elephant, taking off his hat to wipe
his forehead with a pocket handkerchief as large as a table cloth.
“Here they are,” said the little bunny.
“Look pretty nice,” grunted the Circus Elephant, carefully holding the
pie with the little finger on the end of his trunk. “Tastes just as
good. Got any more?”
“No, but Mother bakes to-day,” answered the bunny boy, “perhaps she’ll
bake a big one for you.”
When the Elephant had finished the lollypops he felt better, so he
said, and, taking off his hat, he leaned against the Big Chestnut Tree
and fell asleep.
“My goodness! It takes an elephant a long time to wake up,” thought the
little rabbit, when at last his big circus friend opened his eyes.
“Nothing like a little nap,” yawned the great big animal, rubbing his
ear and stretching his hind legs. After that he yawned again, turning
up his trunk to get a good long breath of fresh air.
“I dreamed you were handing me a peanut.”
“My, but you snored,” sighed Little Jack Rabbit. “I couldn’t go to
sleep until I pretended you were a big engine in a lollypop factory.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed the Circus Elephant. “That reminds me. Didn’t you say
it was baking day at the Old Bramble Patch?”
“I did,” replied the bunny boy.
“All right, we’ll make a call on your mother,” said the Circus
Elephant, scrambling to his feet. “How do I look?” he asked,
straightening his bow tie.
“Very nice,” answered Little Jack Rabbit, “except your trousers.
They’re all covered with bits of dry leaves.”
“So they are,” said the Circus Elephant, looking down. “Have you a
whisk broom?”
The little bunny opened his knapsack and, taking out a small broom,
carefully brushed off the big Elephant.
“I can’t reach your hip-pocket,” he said, standing on tiptoe.
“Here, give me the broom,” said the Circus Elephant, and, grasping the
handle in his trunk, he dusted himself off as well as Mister Rastus
Coon, the kind porter on the “Cabbage” Pullman Car, brushes a sleepy
passenger.
“Now I’ll lift you up on my back,” and the next minute Little Jack
Rabbit found himself riding off on the big animal.
By and by, after a while, and maybe a mile and a bump and a smile, they
met Old Man Weasel. But Little Jack Rabbit wasn’t afraid. Oh, dear, no!
Why should he be? He was way up high on the Circus Elephant’s broad
back. Old Man Weasel couldn’t reach up that far, not even if he stood
on tiptoe.
“Get out of my way,” roared the big Elephant. “You’re blocking up the
path.”
“Where are you going?” snarled Old Man Weasel, stepping aside. My,
didn’t he look ugly! Well, I just guess he did. But that didn’t do him
any good.
“Never you mind,” replied the Circus Elephant. “You’re no friend of
ours.”
“If you meet a wicked weasel
And you are all alone,
You get a creepy feeling
Along your spinal bone.
But if you have an elephant
To guard you with his trunk,
You laugh at Mr. Weasel,”
Sang naughty Sammy Skunk
from his Shady Forest house.
“Oh, keep quiet, will you?” snapped the Old Weasel.
“Why should he?” asked the big Circus Elephant. “He speaks the truth.
Can’t say that about you!”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Little Jack Rabbit. “Won’t Uncle Lucky smile when I
tell him what has happened?”
“I’ve a good mind to bite you,” cried Old Man Weasel, glaring at Sammy
Skunk.
“You’d better not,” replied Sammy Skunk. “You know what I’ll do to you.”
Of course Old Man Weasel did, and so did all the Shady Forest Folk. But
if they don’t meddle with Sammy Skunk he treats them very politely.
Yes, indeed.
“Well, so long,” sang out the big Circus Elephant. “We’ve no more time
to talk,” and off he went at a rapid pace, and by and by, after a
while, not nearly a mile, with a bump and a smile, he stopped at the
gate in the old Rail Fence.
“I’ll take down the bars,” he said. “I guess Mrs. Cow won’t try to get
out while we’re walking in.”
“Oh, no,” answered Little Jack Rabbit. “She likes the Sunny Meadow.
Besides, she is way over there,” pointing toward the Old Duck Pond.
“She won’t bother us.”
After the big Circus Elephant had put back the bars he followed the Old
Cow Path through the Sunny Meadow to the Old Bramble Patch in the far
corner of the Old Rail Fence. Setting the little rabbit down, he wiped
his forehead with a big blue silk handkerchief nearly as large as a
sheet.
“When does your mother take the cake from the oven?” he asked, with a
funny wink, looking at his watch.
“When it’s done,” replied the little rabbit.
“I’ll sit here and wait,” said the big Circus Elephant. So the little
bunny hopped into the Old Bramble Patch and around to the back door of
the little white bungalow.
Dear me, I almost forgot to say that Lady Love, the little bunny’s
pretty mother, was baking angel cake that particular day.
Pretty soon the little rabbit hopped back to his big kind friend with a
piece of cake almost as big as a soda cracker.
“Dear, dear,” cried the disappointed circus animal, “this may be enough
for a rabbit but, goodness me! and dearest you! it isn’t a swallow for
me!”
[Illustration: Just then down swooped Hungry Hawk.]
“I’ll go back for another piece,” said the little bunny, and away he
hopped up the little path and around to the kitchen door. But, oh,
dear me! If only he had not stopped to speak to Timmie Meadowmouse.
Just then down swooped Hungry Hawk. Into an old hollow log slipped the
little mouse, but before the poor little rabbit could hide this cruel
bird robber picked him up in his claws and flew away toward the Shady
Forest.
“Help, help!” shouted Little Jack Rabbit.
Hopping out on the kitchen porch, poor Lady Love looked up to the sky.
But that’s all she could do. She had no wings to fly after her little
son. And, anyway, how could she, a gentle lady bunny, fight a big cruel
hawk!
But the Circus Elephant on hearing the little bunny’s cries, answered
with a loud trumpet and set off at a run for the Shady Forest. My,
you’d be surprised how fast an elephant can run when he wants to!
Wrinkling his forehead, he pondered what to do. All of a sudden he
remembered the big long lasso in his pocket. Quickly coiling it cow-boy
fashion, he let it go, Zip! And would you believe it if I didn’t tell
you? The noose fell right over the old hawk’s head and around his neck
just like the muffler my Uncle John used to wear when I was a boy down
on the farm.
“Now I’ll bring you down!” cried the Circus Elephant. But, oh, dearest
me! Quicker than the bills on the first of the month that crafty old
robber hawk gave his head a wiggle-jiggle and off came the noose.
“Ha, ha!” shouted Hungry Hawk, and away he flew with poor little Jack
Rabbit.
BUNNY TALE 11
THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN GOAT
“Oh, dear, oh, dear, what shall I do?
I’ll never get him with my old lasso!”
Cried the Circus Elephant with a sigh,
As he looked at Hungry Hawk on high.
Now I hope you haven’t forgotten what just took place. How Hungry
Hawk had picked up poor Little Jack Rabbit. Of course you haven’t!
Nor how the big kind Circus Elephant had almost caught this bad
robber bird with a long lasso.
But, dear me! I wonder what is happening to Little Jack Rabbit all
this time. Maybe the cruel hawk has eaten him for dinner or supper or
maybe breakfast.
“Well, I’m not going to give up hope,” said the big Elephant to
himself, again setting off after Hungry Hawk, who now could hardly be
made out up in the sky so far away.
By and by the Elephant came to a mountain. My, but it was a steep old
mountain. Right up and down—almost straight, you know. “Dear me!”
almost sobbed the anxious circus animal, sitting down to consider the
best thing to do—climb up the mountain or walk around it.
“Right on the top of this mountain’s crest
Hungry Hawk has his castle nest,”
all of a sudden, just like that, shouted a voice.
“Who spoke?” asked the Elephant, mighty anxious to find out quickly
if there were a road up this steep, high mountain.
“Look!” answered the same kind voice, and the next minute a little
white mountain goat stood before him.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re a mountain goat,” laughed the big animal.
“I’m so glad I could cry. Maybe you can climb up and rescue my Little
Jack Rabbit.”
“I can’t fight old Hungry Hawk,” answered the little Mountain Goat.
“He’s too strong for me.”
“Dear, dear, dearest me!” cried the poor distracted Elephant, “then
how can we save my little bunny friend?”
“I can help you climb the mountain,” answered the little Mountain
Goat.
“Me?” enquired the big animal. “How could you help a great big
elephant up this steep, right-up-and-down, mountain, I should like to
know.”
“That won’t be so hard,” answered the little Mountain Goat. “Give me
your lasso.”
Throwing the loop over his horns, the little Mountain Goat started
to climb up the mountain side. First he jumped to a ledge of rock,
then scrambled up sideways, then sideways the other way, then another
jump, and perhaps two, and then a scramble.
After working his way up almost as far as the length of the long
rope, he braced his forefeet against a rock and called down: “Pull
yourself up with your trunk!”
Well, sir, that’s just what that big kind anxious Circus Elephant
did. He took hold of that rope with his trunk and up he went, hand
over hand—I mean trunk over trunk—just like a fireman, and by and by,
pretty soon, not so very quick, he stood beside the little Mountain
Goat.
“Good for you,” exclaimed that plucky little animal, as the Elephant
took out his big pocket handkerchief to wipe his forehead. “You came
up all right. Now wait here while I climb up higher.” Up and up went
the little Mountain Goat, now sideways, now straight; now the other
way sideways, then a jump and a scramble, or a scramble and a jump,
or two jumps, or two scrambles till, by and by, not so pretty soon,
but after a while, he called down; “Come on, pull yourself up!”
Then up went the big Circus Elephant trunk over trunk—now slipping
and sprawling, or sprawling and slipping till, by and by, after a
while, out of breath, with a dusty smile, he stood by the side of the
little Mountain Goat.
“Good for you! Now wait here till I go up. Don’t slip, but stand
still.” And away went this nimble little goat up, up, up; now
sideways, this way and that; now up straight; then slanting, right
and left, criss-cross, with a jump and a leap, or a scramble and a
scrumble, making the pebbles fly downward, and sometimes a big rock,
till, by and by, after a while, up nearly a mile, he called down:
“Come on, pull yourself up!”
Again bracing his front feet, the little mountain goat held on to the
long rope, the loop of which was over his strong little horns, you
know, until the Elephant had drawn himself up.
“Whew!” exclaimed the big animal. “Aren’t we ’most there?”
“Almost,” answered the little Mountain Goat, and up he went again.
When at last he reached the top the big Elephant could hardly touch
the end of the lasso, and then only by standing up on his hind legs
and stretching ’way up with his trunk. But he just could, all right.
So up he went, trunk over trunk, scrambling and tugging and panting
and puffing, till by and by, after a while, and it seemed like a
mile, he stood by the side of the little goat on the tip-top of the
mountain.
Dearest me, I thought the little Mountain Goat and the big kind
Circus Elephant would never reach the mountain top, didn’t you? I’m
mighty glad, for now I’ll have more room to tell you what happened as
soon as they saw the nest to which old Hungry Hawk had carried Little
Jack Rabbit.
“There he is,” whispered the Elephant, who had wonderful far-sighted
eyes.
“Where?” asked the little goat in another whisper, only of course it
was much softer than the Elephant’s.
“Don’t you see?” replied the big animal.